Alternative Moments
by MidnightMoments
Summary: The addition of four new characters shifts the storyline slightly, creates new romances that cross houses, and a lot of new sibling dynamics. Lizzy Smythe, Pippa Potter, Elara Lovegood, and Callidora Longbottom (Begins with HP&TCOS - will go all the way to HP&TDH)
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hi guys, this is my first HP fic, feel free to comment or send in any questions about it, I hope you like it and keep with me. This will be a long fic when it's finished so hopefully you can last the journey with me, Thank you x**_

* * *

1st September 1992

* * *

"I just don't understand why I need to run through a wall" Lizzy states after her mother has explained the entrance to platform nine and three quarters to her, again.

"I just don't see how muggles aren't supposed to notice us. I mean, if I saw someone run into a wall and disappear I would _definitely_ have a few questions. I thought we were supposed to be keeping the wizarding world a secret, not displaying it in a very public muggle station for all to see." She explains.

She knows she is just coming up with excuses to postpone the time, but she doesn't care.

"Look Lizzy, I know your scared, but we have 15 minutes until the train goes and you need to be on it."

She stares at the wall a little longer. Other students have come and gone through the wall since she has been standing there, all towering over her. She hadn't felt so small in all her life. 11 years old, though it was only a few days until her 12th birthday. She stood just short of 5 feet tall and her muggle clothes were pristine and polished. Her hair was tied up in a perfect high ponytail with a green ribbon around it. She didn't know which house she would be sorted into, but her mother had been a Slytherin, so it was only right for her to assume she would be too.

Just as Lizzy was building up the courage to go through the wall, another brunette girl, who clearly looked like a first year arrived wearing a similar confused expression to one Lizzy was sporting only a few minutes ago.

"So I'm just supposed to go through it?" The girl asked herself as she began squaring up to the wall.

She moved her trolley of belonging back and forth as if lining up a shot in some muggle sport before concluding that the instructions she had been given were ludicrous and giving up.

"Come on now, we haven't got all day" Her mother said.

"Fine" Lizzy muttered under her breath before running towards the wall.

She got millimeters between her trolley and the wall before she backed out. However, what she hadn't been banking on was the other girl following her lead and running towards the wall directly behind her.

The second girls trolley rammed into the back of Lizzy and knocked the wind out of her and she, along with her trolley went flying through the gate with a now stumbling stranger close behind with her trolley causing all luggage to go flying.

Lizzy's mother followed the girls through the wall at a far more controlled pace and helped to fix the luggage catastrophe with a flick of her wand.

"Sorry" the second girl hurried out with before standing up quickly and brushing her skirt down with one hand whist holding the other one out for Lizzy to take.

Lizzy took the girls hand and stood up.

"I'm Pippa" the other girl said with a smile.

Pippa was also around the 5 foot mark with brown hair that hadn't been corralled into her ponytail quite as successfully as Lizzy's had. Her clothes were very presentable, but clearly more worn that Lizzy's were. She had been around muggles more often.

"Hi, I'm Lizzy" she said returning Pippa's smile. "And this is my mum, Ariella"

"Call me Ari" the older which said.

"Come on girls, only a few minutes until the train leaves, you need to take your seats on the train." Ari instructs before the girls got too flustered and embarrassed about what had just happened. Lizzy's cheeks had already begun to turn crimson.

The girls load their trunks and other belonging onto the train. Pippa takes her seat in an empty carriage and Lizzy gives a goodbye hug and kiss to her mother before joining her. She didn't like the idea of having to say goodbye to her mother, but she knew Hogwarts was where she needed to be.

* * *

"Sorry about earlier, I didn't think you would back out" Pippa blurts out feeling the need to fill the silence.

"It's alright, let's just not talk about it or I'll go red again" Lizzy informed her before looking back out the window.

They hadn't been on the train for long, but they had already begun sailing through the British countryside.

"So, Lizzy, your mum's a which too, that's cool, is your dad?" Pippa enquired.

Lizzy noted there was nothing behind the question. The girl wasn't trying to gather intel on her for later use, she was just genuinely curious.

"I don't know" she answered honestly. "I don't know who my dad is. I used to ask mum a lot, but she would get angrier and angrier each time I would ask, so I gave up." She finished looking down at her hands. She was picking at her nails, a nervous or uncomfortable habit she'd picked up as a small child and never could get rid of.

"Sorry, again, god I swear I use that word way too much. Anyway, if it helps, my parents are dead, or at least I think they are, I never met them. I was raised by a muggle foster family. I don't know if my parents had magic or not." Pippa tells Lizzy with a reassuring smile.

Lizzy looked up from her hands to meet Pippa's eyes.

"Are they nice?" Lizzy asked simply.

"Oh, um, yeah, I guess. They are very quiet compared to me, but they're fine."

For the rest of the journey the girls talk about the differences between being raised with magic and being raised without. Pippa told Lizzy about when realized she was different to all the other girls in her class at muggle school. One day they were having an arts and crafts day and this horrible girl took all the nice paints for her and her friends to use. Pippa got so angry she wished the paints would explode in the girl's face, and within seconds of the thought being in her head, a big pot of purple paint exploded right in the girl's face. She was sneezing purple for a week.

They talked about what houses they might end up in, and what they thought the castle would be like. About half way through the journey they thought they saw a small old blue muggle looking car flying alongside the train swinging around like the driver hadn't even driven before. It quickly flew out of sight and the girls were trying to decide whether they imagined it or not.

* * *

They changed into their robes not long before the train arrived at Hogsmede and followed the call of a giant looking hairy man along with the other first years.

The large man, who called himself Hagrid informed them that whilst all other years make their way to the castle on self-ridden carriages, the first years take boats across the lake.

They all pour into these little wooden boats. Lizzy and Pippa get in a boat with a very pale blond girl and a slightly less pale red head girl.

The castle looked beautiful all internally lit at night. It was clear why first years got to see this view. The blonde girl was in complete and utter awe the whole time. The red head looked a little confused, almost like she had been told to expect something very different. The two brunettes were just quietly trying to calm their nerves and excitement.

"I'm Pippa" Pippa announced clearly wanting to begin a conversation between the girls.

"I'm Luna" the blonde proclaimed not taking her eyes off the castle in front of her.

"Ginny" the red head spoke.

"and I'm Lizzy, did you know there is a giant squid in this lake?" Lizzy stated feeling the need to give a topic of conversation.

"I doubt it. My brothers told me about that, but they also told me the castle was the building they based Azkaban on, so I don't believe it. Ginny commented.

"Well my mum told me about it and she wouldn't lie to me about that so I'm sure it's true." Lizzy replied.

"I want to see it" Pippa stated in a very matter of fact way. "How do we get its attention?"

"you sing to it of course" Luna commented.

Pippa immediately began to sing to the water trying to call the squid over. Ginny and Lizzy exchanged looks of confusion at the idea that this would work, but whether it was the singing, or Pippa's hand dancing across the top of the water, they had managed to attract the attention of something under the water.

"Okay you can stop that now Pippa, what part of giant squid doesn't terrify you?" Lizzy exclaimed.

"You're not scared are you Lizzy?" she replied before continuing to call the sea creature towards them. Within a matter of seconds the water broke and the quid nudges their boat as it pops its head out of the water.

"EEEKKKK" Lizzy squealed before frantically trying to move away from the quid.

She lost her balance very quickly and began to tumble out of the book. Ginny went to grab her hand but wasn't fast enough. Lizzy hit the water hard.

Whist this was happening, Pippa was laughing so heavily that she managed to fall off the other side of the small boat. Luna sat there watching them in pure amazement and Ginny tried to haul the two soaking wet girls back into the boat.

Lizzy was going to yell at her if Pippa hadn't fallen in herself. She was still rolling around in the bottom of the boat laughing hard, which caused the other girls to break out into laughter too.

"I think I'm going to need to get used to being injured and being put into embarrassing situations if I'm going to be friends with you Pippa" Lizzy announced.

"So you're not mad?" Pippa replies sheepishly.

"Not _this_ time".


	2. Chapter 2

**_AN: Thank you for still being here, I wont have a regular schedule for this as I don't want to give myself pressure to keep uploading on time, but I'm hoping to be fairly regular_**

When they arrive at the castle, they shuffle along the path to the entrance to the castle. They are greeted by one of the professors who introduces herself as McGonagall. She scans the group of first years until she spots a still dripping Lizzy and Pippa trying to hide at the back of the crowd. Without uttering a spell, she flicks her wand and the girls are instantly dry again. Feeling satisfied she addresses the group of students collectively.

Professor McGonagall explains how they will go into the hall, and that they will be sorted into their houses.

"What house do you think you'll be in? I haven't got a clue" Pippa asks the girls in a hushed whisper.

"My sister is a Hufflepuff, so maybe that one" Luna comments.

Lizzy nods in agreement with that, she sees the odd little blonde fitting in well with that house.

"Well I have 6 brothers, and they're all in Gryffindor, so I have to be in that one, right?" Ginny states clearly nervous at the thought of her not joining her family in their house.

"Well my mum was a Slytherin, so I'm sure that's where I'll be, I've never even considered being in any other house."

Professor McGonagall opens the doors to the great hall and all the first years follow her as they hurry down the length of the room passing the four house tables to gather around a smalls stool with the sorting hat in front of the head table filled with all the other professors.

The hat proceeded to sing a song about the four houses followed by Professor McGonagall announcing that the sorting would be done alphabetically.

It was a little while until they got to the first of the four girls. It had been quite an even mix of students in each house by this point.

"Luna Lovegood" called Professor McGonagall.

Luna stepped forward and sat down whilst the hat was placed on her head.

The hat then began talking, but just to her whilst it made its decision.

"Hmm, a very interesting head you have. The joy of a Hufflepuff indeed, and I see a sister in that house, but your curiosity and creativity will thrive in Ravenclaw. I see you being gravely underestimated. Hmm, I must go with RAVENCLAW!" the hat decided saying the last word loud enough for the whole hall to here.

Luna looked mildly surprised but happy with her house. She looked across to the Hufflepuff table where a slightly deflated blonde, her sister, sat giving her a small smile before walking towards the Ravenclaw table to join her house.

A few more students went before it was Pippa's turn.

"Philippa Potter"

"Hang on, your name is Pippa Potter" Lizzy whispered with excitement into Pippa's ear whilst trying to stifle a laugh before the girl could head to the stall.

"Shut up" Pippa quipped back as she walked off.

The room had gone a lot quieter than it did with the other students. Everyone was staring at her with strong interest.

"Hmm, bravery, definitely bravery in your head. There has only ever been one house to focus your family. GRYFFINDOR" the hat proclaimed.

With slight hesitation, Pippa considered what the hat said about her family, and the eyes of everyone in the room staring at her, she headed to the Gryffindor table.

"I didn't know Harry had a sister" someone spoke to Pippa as she sat down at the table.

"Whose Harry?" she asks before being shushed whilst the other students were being sorted.

Five more students are sorted before it is Lizzy's go.

"Elizabeth Smythe"

Lizzy takes some tentative steps forward as she approaches the stool.

"Hmm, very torn your head. On one hand the cunning side of you leans towards Slytherin, but your desire for knowledge would suggest Ravenclaw. You have both Slytherin and Gryffindor in your family."

"Who's the Gryffindor in my family?" Lizzy asked the hat before she could stop herself.

"Hmm, your inquisitiveness makes me certain of my decision. RAVENCLAW" the hat states giving Lizzy no answer to her question.

She almost refuses to get off the stool to ask the hat more questions before realising everyone is staring at her so quickly heads to the Ravenclaw table taking a seat next to Luna.

Ginny is the last one to be sorted. A few redheads dotted along the Gryffindor table cheer as she goes up to get sorted.

The hat doesn't even debate with her. It takes less than a second of landing on her head before it declares "GRYFFINDOR" and Ginny, with a very relieved smile heads to the Gryffindor table sitting opposite an increasingly annoyed Pippa.

"Ginny, who is Harry?" Pippa asks ignoring the stares of those around them.

"Um, what, I, uh, Harry who? How would I know?" Ginny stutters out looking very sheepish and embarrassed.

"Isn't he best friends with your brother?" a Gryffindor boy sitting next to her asks.

"Oh, uh, that Harry, Harry Potter"

"Well they keep telling me he's my brother, I don't have a brother I've never even heard of this kid" Pippa protests.

"How have you never heard of Harry? He's the most famous Wizard of our generation!" a girl further down the table protests.

"I was raised by muggles" she states.

"Where even is Harry, and Ron?" asks one red headed twin.

"They weren't even on the train" said the other one.

"Fred and George, my twin brothers" Ginny states whilst gesturing to the boys staring Pippa down trying to see if she looks like Harry.

"Well get them to stop staring at me. I don't have a brother, and wouldn't you all know if Harry had a sister if he is this famous"

"Leave her alone" Ginny instructs her brothers.

They eat the feast with everyone around the hall constantly flicking their attention to Pippa, whilst others try to figure out my Harry isn't there.

* * *

Percy, who Ginny informs Pippa is another one of her brothers, leads the first-year Gryffindor's to their common room.

When they enter, the common room, they are greeted by a red head boy and a boy with a mop of messy brown hair and glasses sitting in big armchairs in a corner of the room.

"That's Harry, next to my brother Ron" Ginny whispers to Pippa.

The twins were quick to follow the new Gryffindors into the common room not wanting to miss what was inevitable.

"So harry, you didn't tell us you have a little sister." One of them proclaimed.

"What are you taking about George?" asks Harry

"Well, this" Fred begins before pulling Pippa forward by her shoulders "is Philippa-"

"Pippa" Pippa cuts in with

"Okay, Pippa Potter, and we can't help but notice how much she looks like you" Fred finishes before placing Pippa in front of the boy they keep calling her brother.

Harry stood up looking at the girl that he couldn't help but admit did share some of his features.

"I'm Harry" he announces with an outstretched hand.

"Pippa" she replied quietly shaking his hand.

By this point Ginny had moved to sit by her brother Ron who gave her a nod of acknowledgement for making it in Gryffindor before turning his attention back to his best friend. People were beginning to gather around them whilst they just stood staring at each other trying to reason it all in their heads.

A girl with long brown frizzy hair had bustled her way through the crowd when entering the common room and stood in between a seated Ron and a standing Harry.

"What took you so long Hermione?" Ron asked hoping she could explain the confusion.

"I was directing a few straggling first years to their common rooms, anyway where were you two on the train? I was worried sick" Hermione asked.

"The platform was shut, we flew dad's car, he's gunna kill us when he hears we wrecked the bloody thing" Ron replied.

"You wrecked Dads car?" Ginny asked in shock.

Pippa begins to think if it was the car she saw out of the train window, but goes straight back to the matter at hand. The room falls silent.

"Harry I thought you didn't have a sister" Ron blurted out to cut the silence.

"I don't" Harry insists. "Do I?"

"I think you'd know if you had a sister Harry, it's not that uncommon to meet someone else with the same last name as you, and yeah you look a little alike but come on, brown messy hair isn't enough to be related, if it was then I would be your sister." Said Hermione.

"yeah Hermione, your right" Harry tried to reason.

By this point the rest of the first year's bar Ginny have been hurried by Percy up to their dorm rooms and the twins are trying to place wagers with people on whether the Potters are related or not. Professor McGonagall entered the common room through the portrait hall to see her houses students gathered around the two Potters.

"Miss Potter and Mr Potter, follow me please" she instructs.

"Okay, something really weird is happening now" Ron says.

The two students follow Professor McGonagall out of the room silently whilst everyone stares at them.

* * *

"Professor, where are we going?" Harry asks unable to keep his eyes from flicking to those of his potential sister who is walking head slightly down alongside him.

"Professor Dumbledore has requested your presence in his office." She informs them.

Pippa begins to panic about why she is being called to the head master's office. It was only her first day, yes she had fallen into the lake but surely it wasn't that bad of an offence, and why was Harry with them. He couldn't _really_ be her brother, could he?

When they reach Professor Dumbledore's office, they approach his desk with Pippa slightly behind.

"Harry, good to see you again, I'm sure your summer went well."

"Sir, what's going on?" Harry asks.

"It has come to my attention Harry, that we have not been entirely truthful with you." Spoke Professor Dumbledore in his usual calm and collected manor.

"I'm sorry Sir, but I don't know what you mean?"

"I'm afraid to say Harry, it has only recently come to my attention, that when Hagrid delivered you to the Dersleys that evening, he had not been the first person to take a child from Grimmauld place that night."

Harry and Pippa continue to stare at the professor with complete bewilderment as he continues to explain.

"It would appear, that whilst in hiding, Lily and James had conceived another child, this time a little girl" Dumbledore explains whilst gesturing to Pippa.

"She was taken and delivered to the care of another muggle family."

The room is silent. Pippa is trying hard to fight back tears at the mention of her early life. She had come to accept that she didn't have any family, and now she was being told she had a brother. It was all too much to handle. Harry wasn't faring much better, but was able to still get some words out.

"Who took her?" Harry asked, still not looking at his sister.

"I'm am not at liberty to discuss such details with you, but I can assure you my sources are reliable, and that you two are in fact, brother and sister."

"I, uh, I don't understand" Pippa finally manages to squeak out.

"I suggest you two spend a little time getting to know each other tonight, but not too much time, classes start promptly tomorrow morning."

Harry turns to Pippa, despite how shocked and confused he is, he can't help but feel for her, and how she must be feeling. He didn't know how much she knew about him, but he knew he wanted to explain his side before she heard about him from everyone else.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Its been a while guys, sorry for the wait, chapter 4 is also written and will be up soon, I am planning to start writing chapter 5 tonight - hope you like it and please comment and favourite so I know what you think x**

* * *

Lizzy could see a lot of attention being drawn to Pippa over on the Gryffindor table. When hearing the girl's last name was Potter, the thought that she might be related to the infamous Harry had crossed her mind, but surely the girl would have known that fact about herself.

As much as she wants to know more about what is happening to Pippa, she puts the thought to one side for the night, for now, she was more concerned with the blonde sitting next to her. Luna didn't seem sad to be in Ravenclaw, she didn't look like someone who regularly showed emotion. It was more a sense of intrigue, as to why she had been sorted where she was.

"Luna, are you surprised to be in Ravenclaw?" she asks.

"A little, I guess. I know you don't get sorted based on your family, so I shouldn't expect to be in Hufflepuff with Elara, but we are very similar" she stated whilst looking around at the feast.

"What about you? You said you were going to be in Slytherin"

"Oh, well I guess I just assumed I would be like my mother, but the hat didn't agree with me."

"Hmm, I guess we will just have to wait to see why the hat put us here."

They continued the feast with light conversation going about here and there. People were introducing themselves to each other, but Lizzy couldn't concentrate on what they were all saying. Her attention was firmly locked on an increasingly agitated looking Pippa, whose whole house couldn't seem to leave her alone.

After the feast, Lizzy and Luna, along with the other first year Ravenclaws were lead by a prefect to their common room. The number of stairs it required to get to the very top of the castle, where the common room was located, was already beginning to annoy Lizzy. Did they really expect her to walk up all these stairs every day?

The girls didn't get too much time to soak up the beauty of their common room, as they wanted to get settled into their rooms and try to get a grips of the castle before lessons the next day. They quickly discovered they were roommates, much to Luna's joy, and a slight distaste on Lizzy's behalf. It wasn't that she didn't like Luna, but she had never met someone like her, and not being able to understand what made this girl tick was already starting to unnerve her.

* * *

2nd September 1992

* * *

Lizzy awoke just as the sun was rising, much to Lizzy's annoyance. Normally she would have struggled to get back to sleep, but first day nerves had her feeling too restless, so she decided to get up early, maybe she could begin to figure out the castle, she guessed that had been Luna's plan too, since the blonde was nowhere to be seen.

Just as she was leaving her room after getting dressed in her new Ravenclaw robes, the door opened, and a still sleeping Luna, wearing her pyjamas and old colourful converse, wandered gracefully into the room before clambering back into bed.

Lizzy made a mental note to keep an eye on that girl before heading out the still open door and closing it gently behind her.

As she began to wander the castle, her stomach just wouldn't keep quiet, and even some of the portraits began to comment on it, so she gave in and headed to the great hall hoping breakfast was already being served.

When she entered the room, she saw a small scattering of students from all houses spread out around the room. A minimal spread was laid out for the early comers before the rest of the students would fill the hall.

She sat away from any other Ravenclaws on her house table near where she sat the night before and began to look over her schedule and map to keep her mind occupied, whilst eating some jam on toast. It wasn't long until a mop of long brown messy hair plopped itself down next to her sporting the red crest of the Gryffindor robes.

Lizzy looked up to see a very tired and slightly disgruntled looking Pippa.

"Good morning" she spoke, having a feeling it was all the prodding the girl would need to spill what has caused this behaviour.

"He's my brother" is all she said.

Lizzy continued to stare at Pippa waiting for her to provide a little more context, though she was sure she could figure out the rest for herself.

"I wasn't raised with magic, I had never heard of 'Harry Potter, the boy who lived' before yesterday, and now he's my brother"

"I think he's always been your brother, you just didn't know about it."

Pippa didn't respond, instead she chose to take the toast out of Lizzy's hand and eat it in protest of the girl's remark.

"I'm just saying" Lizzy defended herself with.

"How can I go from being a muggle only child to adopted parents one year, to a witch with a famous wizard for a brother the next?" Pippa asks whilst continuing to eat Lizzy's toast.

Lizzy, giving up on getting her breakfast back proceeds to get some more toast before simply replying with "I don't know".

"Please say something weird happened to you too last night so I'm not the only one."

"Well, the sorting hat decided to tell me I have family that was in Gryffindor, but I don't understand how since my mum was Slytherin and the rest of her family went to a different wizarding school."

"There are other wizarding schools?" Pippa queries.

"Yeah, there's a few, Mum went to Bauxbattons in France before transferring to Hogwarts. Anyway, I think it means my dad must have gone to school here, and he must have been a Gryffindor, or someone in his family must have been, but I don't know who he was."

Pippa doesn't need to say anything back to this, she gets it. She may have been raised by two parents, but she too didn't know who her birth parents were, until yesterday that was.

Pippa, deciding not to let their families get in the way of the first day of school, moved the conversation along to their timetables whilst they continued to eat. They discovered they had most of their classes together to their delight.

The girls finished their breakfasts but continued to sit at the Ravenclaw table chatting as other students began to file in. Luna made her way over to the girls without announcing herself. She quietly took a seat opposite the girls and gave a smile of acknowledgement at them both. She then proceeded to get herself a bowl of porridge before humming quietly to herself whilst looking around the hall with great interest.

Lizzy and Pippa looked from Luna to each other giving subtle inquisitive glances before averting their attention back to the peculiar blonde in front of them.

"Morning Luna" Lizzy spoke, not being able to take the silence.

Luna focused her gaze from the enchanted ceiling above them to Lizzy's face before speaking.

"Morning Lizzy, morning Pippa. I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation. Please, feel free to continue." Luna punctuated the sentence by spooning some porridge into her mouth and smiling right after swallowing.

Both girls continued to look at her with slight perplexity whilst Luna resumed her wonder filled gazes.

It was mere seconds until an unknown Hufflepuff plopped herself down next to Luna giving her a slight nudge in attempt to bring her back down to reality. She was quite tall, hair blonde matching Luna's, if not a little shorter, and if it wasn't for the way she was acting, Lizzy would have guessed she was also a first year, but she could tell this girl was older than them.

"Elara!" Luna exclaimed when she finally acknowledged the presence of the girl next to her.

"Hey Luna" Elara spoke before pulling the young Ravenclaw into a hug.

"I really hoped you would have been in Hufflepuff with me, but Ravenclaw makes sense too I guess." She continued.

Lizzy and Pippa continued to watch the blondes talk, not aware that they were staring. Lizzy remembered Luna saying something about a sister in Hufflepuff, and it didn't take much for her to realise that was who was sat in front of her.

"Hi, sorry you girls have no idea who I am" Elara said to the staring faces.

"I'm Elara Lovegood, Luna's sister" She spoke offering a wide smile as greeting like her sister had just minutes before.

"I'm Pippa"

"Ah, you're the girl everyone's talking about" Elara spoke with no awareness of her words.

"Don't worry," she added to the worried looking first year. "None of its bad. Just confusion mostly."

"I'm Lizzy"

Elara's focus shifted to the other girl. With the attention off her, Pippa noticeably relaxed and gave Lizzy a small smile of thanks that she could see out of the corner of her eye.

"Luna and I are roommates." She added needing to fill the silence.

"Ah, so you're the one I need to warn about my little Luna's sleeping habit. Don't worry if she isn't there in the middle of the night. She's been sleepwalking for years now. She's never been hurt or gone anywhere she shouldn't so there's nothing to worry about. I know Luna wouldn't have thought to warn you though." Elara explained.

"Why warn of something so natural?" Luna questioned.

"Because it freaks other people out" Elara responded bluntly. It was clear they'd had this conversation before.

"It's okay, I saw her come back this morning."

"Good, just remember, she's like a cat, she always comes back." Elara joked with smirk.

It wasn't long after that, that Ginny joined them sitting down next to Pippa.

"Hi guys, sorry, I didn't want to sit on my own at the Gryffindor table, and I really didn't want to be stuck with my brothers on my first day." She commented before grabbing an apple and eating quitetly.

"Hey Ginny" Elara addressed the red head.

"Hi Elara, you looking forward to your second year?" Ginny asked.

"I guess, I would like it more if I didn't have potions with Snape today, but at least its double Herbology first."

"ELARA" an equally tall brunette with hair down to her waist from the Hufflepuff table called out.

"Calli's calling, I better run." Elara commented before climbing out of the bench.

"See you later Luna, and good luck with your first day girls" Elara continued with a wink.

There was a small chorus of goodbyes before Elara made her way over to her own house table, where she was greeted by smiling faces of all ages. It was then that it occurred to Lizzy, that Hufflepuff was the house that mixed years far more than any of the others. The girl who had called Elara over, Calli, looked to be a year or two older again.

It was in that moment, that the owls burst into the hall delivering the morning post. There was a clattering and a mess on the Gryffindor table where Harry, Ron and Hermione sat, causing the four first years to divert their attention to their table. Lizzy took a small and sharp intake of breath when she realised what had been delivered to Ron.

"What's that?" Pippa enquired, not sure why the other witches were looking so worried.

"It's a howler." Lizzy stated quite simply. "You only get one if someone is really angry at you. They yell and everything." She continued.

After a few moments of clear debating, Ron began to open the small red envelope before it jumped to life and began ranting at Ron in a woman's voice about the car.

"Oh no, it's from mum" Ginny said.

The girls looked on with worried expressions between them as Ron was edging back on the bench getting yelled at by his mother in the form of an envelope. Part way though the howler turned to find Ginny at the Ravenclaw table, and congratulated her in a much gentler tone for making it into Gryffindor, before turning back to Ron. If she had wanted to lay low as a Weasley before, she wasn't going to be able to know.

"What did your brother's do?" Lizzy asked when the howler had finally finished and people began to go back to what they had previously been doing.

Pippa glared at Lizzy for calling Harry her brother so casually, but it was ignored as Ginny explained.

"They didn't make it onto the platform in time yesterday, so they stole dad's flying car, and crashed it."

"Why would they do that?" Lizzy stated absolutely baffled at the lack of logic in the two boys. "Please don't tell me all Gryffindor's are this reckless, between being friends with you too and the inevitability of being around your brothers, I would like to make it to the end of the school year alive. If fact, scratch that, I want to survive the week!"

"Oh don't be so dramatic, haven't you ever done something reckless before?" Pippa asked.

"No, I haven't, and I wasn't planning on starting."

"I don't think you have to be spontaneous Lizzy, you need to be quick thinking enough to keep up with them." Luna spoke reminding Lizzy that she was still there.

"So I guess it's a good thing I'm in Ravenclaw then."

"I guess it is." Said Pippa.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hope you like chapter 4 x**

Elara was quite tall for her age. She wasn't particularly outgoing, but seemed to make friends quickly. Upon joining Hufflepuff the year before, she had gotten herself a friendship group crossing several years and into the other houses, well, all but Slytherin that was.

She said her goodbyes to her sister and the other first years she was with before heading to her own house table. Elara would never admit it, but she was worried for her little sister. Luna had a unique personality. It was one that Elara adored, but she was aware that the airy nature of the girl, and the obsession with things most considered not to even exist had people questioning her sanity. It never bothered Luna, but Elara hated it.

She was greeted by a mixture of hellos, smiles and handshakes as she clambered over her house bench. Calli, the girl who had called Elara over proceeded to rest her head on Elara's shoulder pretending to take a nap.

"Seriously Calli, it's the first day and you're this tired already." She accused her best friend before nudging the girl off her shoulder.

"Hey, it's not my fault your birthday party went a little late last night. I didn't choose for your birthday to be the day we all come back to school." Calli defended herself with before laying her head back on Elara's shoulder.

"Well it's not mine either, and I'm awake." She replied, not bothering to remove Calli again, she knew the girl would just continue to rest on her.

"That's because this is only your second year, I'm on my fourth, I can assure you that when you get to my year, the first day of classes novelty will have worn off, and you'll be sleeping on my shoulder."

"Aww, how's old age treating you?" Elara joked, leaning an arm up to half pat, half stroke her friends head.

"Excuse me! I'm only a year and a half older than you, thank you very much" Calli protested which Elara just chuckled in response to.

"How's Luna doing?" Calli continued in a slightly quieter and more serious tone as she sat up facing Elara.

"Honestly, she's doing a lot better than I thought she would be. I'm going to keep an eye on her though." Elara spoke giving Calli a knowing half smile.

"She'll be fine. I was worried about my brother last year, and yeah he gets picked on, but he's friends with Harry and Ron, and from the looks of it Luna is becoming friends with their sisters." Calli reassured her friend.

"Yeah, I guess" Elara said mulling over Calli's words as she instinctively looks back over at her sister.

* * *

After breakfast, Elara said her goodbyes to her friends before heading over to the Gryffindor table since she had double Herbology first with them.

"Hi guys" she said to announce her presence at the table. She noted the slight tension in the air when she arrived so tried to lighten the mood a little.

"Hi Neville, your sister says hi" she addressed the boy.

"Hi Elara." Neville said in reply.

"Glad we have double Herbology first?" she asked the group generally already predicting their reactions.

There was a general mumble of no's, and a quite smiling nod from Neville as they all gathered their stuff and prepared to head to class.

Herbology wasn't Elara's favourite class, but it was taught by professor sprout who she had a great fondness of, so she couldn't complain too much about the day.

They headed to Herbology engaged in small talk about their summers, not addressing the obvious drama that had occurred in the short time they had been back at school already.

Elara chose a work station with only Gryffindors. She didn't have too many Hufflepuff friends that were in her year, so tended to move around from different groups of people. For this lesson, she had taken a spot next to Hermione.

Professor Sprout announced that they would be re-potting mandrake roots. Unlike most of the class, she knew what they were, and was instantly dreading the sound of their screaming. Having a sister like Luna, and a Step-Father like Xenophilius meant she had helped plant a few of them in their garden before. You never knew when mandrake leaves might come in handy they would always say whilst she was telling off the plant in her hand for biting her finger.

Despite knowing the answers to Professor Sprout's questions, she stayed quiet and allowed Hermione to answer them all, she would show her knowledge practically, and she did. She was able to pull the root out in a twisting motion, rather than just yanking it like the rest of the class, which kept her root calmer and slightly better behaved. It wasn't long until those around her were copying her technique.

Justin Finch-Fletchley, another Hufflepuff, had come over during a break to spout nonsense at Harry. She couldn't help her eye rolls behind his back, which caused Harry to have to suppress a smirk. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with Justin, it was just that he was the poster child for all Hufflepuff stereotypes, and she wasn't.

When class ended, everyone filed out of the room feeling exhausted and wanting to wash the dirt off of them. Elara, like always, was last to leave the room. She was about to walk out the door when Professor Sprout stopped her.

"Elara, how did you know what to do with the mandrakes today?" the Professor asked with no introduction. She wasn't one for beating around the bush, which Elara was grateful for.

"I've done it before. We have some at home." She replies simply.

"Then why didn't you at least put your hand up when I asked questions at the beginning of class?"

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal." Elara spoke after a brief pause.

"I'm awarding five points to Hufflepuff for your skills today, but just remember, if you had tried to answer a question earlier, it would have been more. Our house would thank you if you did." The Professor stated not so subtly.

"Yes Professor. Thank you." Elara said before giving a slight nod and exiting the room.

* * *

The first-year Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students headed to their first ever lesson at Hogwarts after breakfast. It was defence against the dark arts with Professor Lockheart, a first-time teacher.

Most of the girls had hurried early to get seats at the front, Lizzy and her newly found group of friends included. They sat in a square near the front of the room with Luna and Ginny in front, and Lizzy and Pippa behind them respectively.

The room was filled with a mix of nervous chatter, a few students trying to stay awake, and a general sense of excitement. It wasn't until Lockheart appeared from his office just up the stairs in the classroom that the room went silent with the aid of a few audible gasps.

A large handful of the girls began blushing and trying to conceal squeaks of excitement as a large perfect grin spread across his face. He practically strutted down the stairs as he made his way to perch on the edge of his desk in a pose that looked like he was waiting for someone to paint his portrait, though he already had enough of those hung around the room.

"Well aren't you all just so lucky to have your first ever lesson, with me" he practically beamed at them.

Lizzy couldn't help the eye rolling that happened naturally. But whether she wanted to admit it to anyone, she was very excited when she found out THE Guilderoy Lockheart was going to be her teacher. He was already meeting all her expectations and she loved it.

Pippa was looking around the room a little baffled. The boys in the room seemed in awe of him, but the girls, well they all looked like they wanted to doodle his name in hearts around the corners of their parchment. She didn't understand how anyone could fancy a teacher, even if they did look like him.

Pippa leaned over to whisper "Why is everyone going googly-eyed over him?" when Lockheart wasn't looking.

"He wrote half your text books, he's a wizarding legend" Lizzy simply explained not taking her eyes off the man fixing his hair at the front of the room.

"Yeah, sure he's a great wizard, but he's still a teacher" Pippa replied.

Lizzy, trying to be subtle, gave Pippa a shoulder shrug. She hoped it was enough to convince her that she wasn't obsessed like everyone else, but her efforts were pointless by the end of the lesson.

Lockheart had assigned a quiz on his books, but it ended up being more of a quiz on himself. Pippa, not having have read the books guessed all the answers and surprisingly got 40%, considering she just went with the most pompous answer she could think of. Ginny scored 82%, Luna only got 57%, and Lizzy scored an incredible 96%.

"I'm a Ravenclaw, and I was raised in the wizarding world, so of course I read his books a few times. Its only logical I would have gotten the highest mark in the class." Lizzy tried to defend herself with, but it did nothing to stop the laugher that was trying to escape Pippa's face as they walked to their next class.

* * *

Professor Snape received a very different reception from the first years. Most of them sat there in fear of making any mistake that might get them on the Professor's bad side immediately. The muggle born students, Pippa included, were picking up on the nervous atmosphere in the room, and only began to contribute to it when Snape entered the room out of his back office.

The professor had this overly intimidating aura to him. He didn't overly phase Lizzy. Due to her mother, she had attended many parties and dinners over the years that Snape was also at. Although she had never spoken to the Professor before, he wasn't one to be overly sociable at these gatherings, she had a feeling her connection to him through her family would help keep her in his favour.

Without so much as an introduction, he ordered the class to open their potions books to chapter one. It wasn't a particularly difficult lesson, but there was a lot of note taking, and the class were assigned their first piece of homework. They were to do two sides of parchment on why potion making was a crucial craft in the wizarding world.

"I already know I'm going to be rubbish at potions" Pippa stated a little disgruntled as they left the room.

"I'm rather looking forward to playing with all the ingredients and seeing what I can make" Luna chimed in half walking, half skipping alongside them.

"You don't get to make up your own potions Luna, you have to follow a recipe, but yeah, I'm kind of excited to get to do that soon. Hopefully we can make a potion by the end of the week." Lizzy added.

"At least Snape taught us something, unlike Lockheart." Said Pippa.

"Lockheart will teach us something, but its first day, and knowing if students have read his books lets him know if he needs to teach it or if he can move onto other things, it's actually a very clever tactic." Said Lizzy.

"Well then he should have made the questions about the things he's teaching, not about himself" Said Pippa.

Lizzy didn't reply, she just gave a sharp look to Pippa earning a laugh.

* * *

After lunch, they had transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. They all filed into the room and took their seats. There was no Professor to be seen, only a cat perched on the end of McGonagall's desk watching the students with an unusually keen interest for an animal. It wasn't until the cat pounced from the table, and instead of it landing on the floor, it had perfectly transformed into Professor McGonagall who landed gracefully.

The Ravenclaws were stunned into silence, whilst the Gryffindor's beamed with pride at their head of house. Pippa was almost overcome with shock. She kept blinking to see if her eyes were tricking her. She didn't know what had just happened, but she knew she wanted to do it. She looked over at Lizzy to ask if she was feeling the same way when she could see cogs visibly churning in the girl's head as she processed what had happened and began planning to do it herself.

"Can we learn to do that?" a very excited looking Gryffindor boy asked whilst waving his arm frantically above his head.

"To be an Animagi is a skill that takes years of skill and honing of the craft, magic well beyond the capabilities of first years. So no, you may not learn that in this class." She replies to the boy before turning to the whole class. "Here, you will learn the art of transfiguration. Transforming something into another. It is one of the most difficult strands of magic as it requires the upmost precision and concentration."

Every single student in the room was enwrapped in her words, wanting to absorb all of it. The lesson went rather quickly with the students hanging off her every word and writing feverishly to get all the notes. By the end of the lesson, a few of them had developed hand cramp.

"She's just so cool" Pippa stated when walking down the halls.

"My brothers said she did something impressive in your first lesson, but I didn't know she began it as her animagus" said Ginny.

"I'm going to learn to do that" Lizzy stated. "I don't care how difficult it is to do, I'm going to do it."


	5. Chapter 5

**_AN: Hi guys, sorry its been months! However I have now finally graduated from university... and am unemployed but the bonus is now I actually have free time so you can berate me for not updating because now its just my laziness and I have no excuses. Chapter six is written and I'm about to begin chapter 7, so hopefully there will be more for you guys soon! x_**

* * *

That evening, the great hall was buzzing with conversations about the first day of lessons. Several were complaining about the amount of homework assigned already, various groups of girls around the hall were discussing Professor Lockheart in excruciating detail, others were shoving as much food down their throats as possible, but the large majority were still focused on the big gossip of the new year.

Pippa and Ginny had decided to sit with their own house for dinner, and it wasn't long before Hermione led her two best friends to sit in the empty seats by their sisters giving a firm expression of finality with her decision as a response to the groans of protest coming from the boys. The younger girls weren't too happy with the decision either, choosing to keep their heads down and playing with their food.

"Hello Pippa, Ginny, how was your first day at Hogwarts" Hermione asked trying to get a conversation going.

"Good thank you" Pippa replied. Ginny just nodded silently in agreement.

"That's good then" Said Hermione, a little disappointed the conversation wasn't picking up.

After a few moments of silence, Pippa looked up from her plate to see the other four around her looking as awkward as she felt. She looked at Harry, for the first time properly since the discovery that he was her brother. She noticed his wildly curly hair, very much like hers, though it was darker. His nose curved the same way as hers, and his face carried an almost pained expression. It was very slight, and if you weren't looking for it you would have missed it, but it was there. Pippa couldn't help but realise that this whole situation must have been as hard for him to deal with as it was for her. It was for that reason alone that she decided to make a small gesture of effort.

"How was your day?" She asked the older students around her generally.

Hermione looked up immediately at this and tried to conceal a smile of delight when turning to Harry and kicking him under the table rather hard. He jumped with a slight twinge of pain running through his leg before scowling at Hermione. His look was met simply with a head pointing to Pippa with exited wide eyes.

"Oh, um yeah. It was alright, I guess." Harry spoke finally getting the not-so-subtle hints.

It didn't take long for the other houses to notice the conversation, or for a few of the Slytherin students to chime in with their view on the matter.

"Looks like the Potter's are having a family reunion" Called out a very pale boy with slicked back blonde hair standing on his house bench, earning himself a laugh from the students surrounding him.

"Shove off Malfoy" Harry called back at the boy rising in his seat as he did so. Instead of backing down, he just looked smug about his comment having the desired effect.

"Don't tell Draco what to do, he didn't do anything wrong" spoke up a Slytherin girl with a perfectly cut bob standing with her arms folded in a defensive stance.

"Nobody asked you Pansy, can't Draco stand up for himself" called Ron glaring at her also Beginning to rise from his seat.

"I can, but clearly Harry needs _you_ to defend him from Pansy" Called Draco.

"Who even are you?" Pippa said joining in looking very annoyed at the strange boy across the other side of the hall.

"Excuse me, but I'm Draco Malfoy" the boy exclaimed straightening up instructively as he said it.

"Yeah I got that bit, but I still don't know who you are" Pippa continued. There was a scattering of suppressed laughter at this throughout the hall.

"How dare you not know who I am. You may be new to our world, but I would have thought someone would have deemed it worth your while to mention me." Draco said whilst pulling his robes straight almost a little too violently. His face was Beginning to colour red, which was a strong contrast to his hair.

"Nope" was all Pippa had to say to set Malfoy off.

" _I happen_ to be from one of the most _powerful_ and _pure magical_ bloodlines in all of wizarding kind, and you'd do well to remember that, half-blood." Draco stated with finality in his voice.

Harry Looked about ready to climb over his house table, and the tables of the two other houses in his way to get to Draco by this point, but before he could do anything, Lizzy was standing on her stool from the Ravenclaw table facing Draco with her arms folded protectively across her chest.

"Leave. Pippa. Alone." Lizzy stated calmly but with power behind her words. She had clearly needed to stand on the bench for the intimidating advantage after her small stance, but it somehow seemed to have worked. Draco's eyes faltered slightly at the sight of the small but powerful looking Ravenclaw girl now standing in-between his view of the Gryffindor's he was arguing with.

"Why do you care Smythe?" It's bad enough you didn't even make it into Slytherin, don't make it worse for yourself by defending the Gryffindors." Draco threw back after regaining his composure.

Lizzy almost hissed out of distaste for the boy. She was about to speak again when Professor Lockheart sauntered over to the students from the teachers table.

"What appears to be the problem here?" he asked knowing full well what had happened since he had witnessed the whole thing.

"Nothing" chimed all of them in perfect harmony.

They all slowly began to climb down from their standing positions feeling no less angry and turned back to their meals.

Lockheart, feeling like he had successfully dealt with the situation nodded to himself before strutting back to the teachers table where he was met with subtly disapproving faces from the other faculty members.

The Slytherins, feeling like they had won since they had the last word enjoyed their meals and laughed loudly at each other's conversation.

The Gryffindors sat around complaining about Malfoy and his group of followers he called friends, not realising all the awkward tension from earlier was now gone.

Lizzy on the other hand at the Ravenclaw table was trying not to go as red as she was feeling after processing her actions.

"Are you okay?" Luna asked her whilst tilting her head to the side with keen interest.

"Yeah, I just hate that boy." She replied.

"His bark is worse than his bite" said Elara who had joined them again.

Lizzy took this as her trying to defend him and shot daggers at the girl.

"Well his bark is too loud. Someone should put a muzzle on him." Said Lizzy before thinking about what spell she might need to do that herself.

"Hey, snap out of it!" Elara said clicking in front of Lizzy's face to get her attention. "He's not worth it" she added.

"No, I guess you're right." Lizzy replied, finally beginning to calm down.

She turned around to look behind her to find him acting as if the last few minutes hadn't even happened.

The girls continued to eat their dinner, and conversation moved onto less heated topics quite quickly which Lizzy was thankful for. She wasn't one to usually cause a scene, or join in on one, but Malfoy had it coming, and Pippa had no idea who she was making an enemy of.

"You are going to actually eat at our table at some point right?" said Calli before dropping herself down on the bench next to Elara. She didn't bother putting her legs under the bench so just twisted her body to face the group, not planning on staying there for long.

"I will, but it's Luna's first day, sorry I wanted to spend time with my sister, besides aren't you going to Quidditch practice?" Said Elara almost teasingly.

"Oh shut up" Calli said rolling her eyes.

"Are you on your house team?" Lizzy asked getting excited at the mention of Quidditch.

"Yeah, I'm the Hufflepuff keeper" she replied. "I'm Calli by the way, in my fourth year" she added with a smile for greeting.

"I'm Lizzy" she said to Calli before turning her attention to Elara. "Do you play too?"

"Oh um, I'm not on the house team"

"Yet" Calli interrupted with.

"Yet" Elara added. "But hopefully I'll make the team this year."

"What position do you play?" Asked Lizzy.

"Seeker" Elara replied simply.

"Cool, well hopefully you make the team" said Lizzy.

"Hopefully. What about you, do you want to make the Ravenclaw team some day?" Said Elara.

"Yeah, I play beater" Said Lizzy proudly.

The two older and taller Hufflepuffs looked all the petite Ravenclaw girl with slight surprise.

"You'll definitely catch some people off guard" said Calli.

"That's the plan" Lizzy beamed at her.

"Well, I wish you luck with that." Elara added.

"Right, I better go" said Calli.

"Tell him I say hi" said Elara giving Calli the widest grin she could.

"I will" said Calli smiling back at her friend before turning to walk down the length of the hall.

* * *

"Callidora Longbottom. Your late" said a rather impatient looking boy in Gryffindor Quidditch robes standing near the edge of the pitch with a broom in one hand, and a quaffle in the other.

"Oliver Wood. I'm right on time" said Calli before mimicking the boy's body language.

"If you're not ten minutes early, you might as well be ten minutes late" said Wood.

"Oh whatever, look do you want my help or not." She said before walking closer to him. "You know my house would kill me if they found out I was training with the competition." She added.

"You're right, I'm sorry, look can we just get to playing? The first match of the year is only a month and a half away!"

Calli rolled her eyes before grabbing the ball from under his arm and walking out further into the pitch.

"You coming or what?" she called out behind her.

It didn't take long for Wood to come running after her to catch up and then walk into the centre of the pitch with her. They both mounted their brooms and became air born. Wood took his place in front of the goals, whilst Calli began to fly around the pitch Beginning to mimic a possible in game, flight path.

Calli began launching the quaffle towards Wood which he was quickly able to hit out of the way. They trained like that long enough for the sun to set. There was a fair number of shots Wood wasn't able to defend causing him to get angry and Calli to laugh at his reactions, just fuelling him further.

It wasn't until twenty minutes before curfew that they stopped playing.

"Not bad, for a Hufflepuff" called Wood as he jogged, panting out of breath, to catch up with Calli.

"Hey, I barely broke a sweat, you looked like you were going to faint and fall off your broom about 10 minutes into practice." She threw back at him.

"I think you'll find I was going easy for your benefit" He said smirking at her.

"Oh please, don't act like you need to play down for my sake, I know you were going for it and still couldn't keep up with me." Calli said with finality in her voice.

She walked slightly ahead of Wood back to the changing rooms smiling to herself as she went. They changed as quickly as they could and raced each other back to the castle, neither wanting to get caught out of their common rooms after curfew.

"Well, well, well, where are you two running off to?" Called Fred.

The twins had been sitting on a bench in the corridor of the entryway to the castle when Calli and Wood ran in.

"C'mon Fred, that exhausted and sweaty, I think the real question is where they are running from?" added George giving them both a knowing look.

"What?" Wood asked his teammates looking genuinely confused, while Calli stared at her best friends wide eyed knowing where their heads were at.

"Ignore them" Callie said, pulling Wood by his robes away from the now giggling twins.


	6. Chapter 6

_**AN: Hi Guys, Here's chapter 6. Please review and like if you want more, it really helps me to know what people are thinking so far x**_

* * *

5th September 1992

The first week of lessons had finally ended, and the first weekend at Hogwarts was beginning. Before the day had even started, Harry, and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team had been dragged out of bed by team captain, Oliver Wood.

It didn't take long for house pride to spread the news of the practise, or for Ginny to try and get Pippa to come with her to watch them train. Her reasoning was that watching them practise would make it easier for her to explain the rules to Pippa, and give the girl more things to talk to Harry about, but Pippa had a sneaking suspicion that the other girl was more interested in bonding with her brother than she was.

Despite this, Pippa didn't have anything better to do with her Saturday, so she figured she'd go see what all the fuss was about, bringing a book with her encase she found it as boring as watching the boys at her old school play football, a very muggle sport.

On their way to the pitch, they stopped by the great hall to grab some breakfast for on the go.

"Hey, Pippa, where are you going?" Lizzy called from the Ravenclaw table noticing the girls in a rush to leave.

"Were gunna go watch Quidditch practise, wanna come?" Pippa replied.

"Um, yeah, sure" said Lizzy gathering her books. She had already finished eating a few minutes before. She looked at Luna as if to ask the girl if she was coming too, but she shook her head with a smile to say no, before the three girls left the hall.

They ended up having to wait in the stands for a while for the team to come out of the changing rooms, but they didn't mind. Ginny was trying to keep her excitement levels down. Lizzy was quite content getting some homework done. Pippa was trying to keep her concentration on her book, but couldn't quash the intrigue and thoughts running though her brain.

There weren't many people in the stands. Ron and Hermione were sitting on the edge of the pitch at the front eating breakfast, and another first year Gryffindor was sat in the middle of the stands almost shaking with excitement.

The team finally leave the changing room and arrive on the pitch. Within seconds the eager first year is taking as many photos as he can of Harry, who doesn't look very happy this is happening.

"Whose Harry's number one fan?" asked Lizzy.

"Colin Creevey. Muggle born first year, obsessed with Harry. He was basically my shadow this morning, following me around, talking about how lucky I must feel to find out I'm Harry's sister. He would trade places with me in a heartbeat if he could." Pippa replied.

The team had only been air born for a few minutes before the Slytherin team walked onto the pitch. They were down and off their brooms instantly.

"C'mon, I've got to know what's going on down there" said Lizzy.

The girls grabbed their books and ran down the stairs of the stadium as fast as they could to make it to the two Quidditch teams. When they got there, Wood was reading a note aloud that the Slytherin captain handed him.

"You've got a new seeker?" said Wood. "Where?"

The boys in green parted and a very smug looking Draco Malfoy walked forward between them.

"MALFOY?" Lizzy yelled in shock sporting a very puzzled face drawing a lot of eyes to her, including the narrowing pair belonging to the mentioned boy. Pippa jabbed her in the ribs to silence her.

"Yes, Me. Think that's funny do you Smythe?" Draco quipped.

"Actually I do. Didn't think your daddy would want you playing such a rough game." Said Lizzy.

"I think you'll find my _father_ was rather supportive of the idea." Said Draco now looking at the broom in his hand.

"A generous gift from Mr Malfoy himself to the whole Slytherin team" said the Slytherin captain.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. _They_ got in on pure talent." Said Hermione with fire in her eyes.

"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little mudblood" spat Draco.

All the Gryffindors bar the Potters gasped in horror whilst the Slytherin's laughed encouragingly.

Ron thrusted his wand forwards saying "You'll pay for that one Malfoy!".

Green sparks flew out of Ron's wand. However, due to the recently broken nature of the wand, the sparks flew at himself rather than Malfoy propelling him backwards. Within seconds he was vomiting slugs.

"That's disgusting" said Lizzy recoiling slightly as the sight of the redhead on the floor. She could almost see a slight smirk in agreement on Draco's face, but he would have denied it.

The Slytherins began laughing uncontrollably whilst the Gryffindor's tried to help Ron.

Harry and Hermione took an arm each and ran Ron to Hagrid's as fast as they could.

Ginny tried to hold both her much larger twin brothers back from killing Malfoy with the help of Wood and the other Gryffindor teammates.

"C'mon guys, they're not worth it" said one of the female players on the Gryffindor team.

The Gryffindor's began to walk away from the pitch whilst the Slytherins walked further onto it.

Only Pippa and Draco were left staring each other down.

"Don't. Like Angelica said, he's not worth it" said Lizzy gently pulling Pippa back by the arm. Draco glared at her. He was about to say something when he was called to hurry up.

"I'm coming Flint" he called over his shoulder before giving the girls one last smirk and running off.

* * *

Elara and Calli had been enjoying a late Saturday breakfast at the Hufflepuff table when they, along with every other student in the great hall was distracted by the Gryffindor Quidditch team storming into the room.

"Wood looks mad. What the hell could have happened, they were just having practice?" asked Calli with a worried look on her face.

"I have no idea." Replied Elara.

They weren't close enough to hear Wood relaying the news to his housemates, but they noticed that Calli's younger brother Neville was. Once Wood had finished talking, they tried calling Neville over in a whisper yell. The boy remained oblivious however so Calli threw a bread roll at the back of his head making him jump, and his friends chuckle around him.

"What?" he asked his sister accusingly as she smiled at him with fake innocence.

"Come here" she beckoned to him.

Neville begrudgingly got up and sat opposite the two girls on the Hufflepuff table.

"What do you want?" he asked pretending he didn't already know.

"What did Wood just tell you all?" she asked without subtlety.

"Why don't you just ask him yourself? He is your boyfriend after all" said Neville.

Calli gave him a swift kick to the knee under the table causing him to grown in pain.

"He's not and you know that! Now tell me what he said." Said Calli.

Elara looked back and forth between the siblings while they argued. She was friends with both so always liked to let them handle each other. Neville explained what happened on the Quidditch pitch and that Draco was the new Slytherin Seeker. Calli was annoyed that Elara wasn't reacting with as much anger as she was, but the girl just shrugged it off.

* * *

Throughout the rest of the weekend, Elara was a little distant. She was thinking about everything that had happened that week, and it was only the first week of school. By Sunday lunchtime, her routine from last year resumed without planning. She snuck out of her common room, having learnt the best corridors to walk down to avoid people. When she arrived at the entrance to the kitchens, she tickled the pair and the painting swung open to reveal the kitchen team of Hogwarts house elves running around and prepping lunch.

In the corner of the room was a little table and two benches, like the ones in the great hall only much smaller, where her brother already awaited her. A Sunday roast was laid out in front of them provided by the house elves.

Luna was only her half sister, not that many people knew of course. Elara's mother, Pandora Lovegood, had been seeing a very powerful wizard in secret. He was married, and still very much in love with his wife, and she was also married to Xenophelious. This affair resulted in Pandora conceiving a child, Elara. There was no way the father was going to leave his wife, nor she leave her husband. He didn't mind about the affair since it brought them their first child, as he saw it. The same month Elara was born, her real father's wife fell pregnant with his legitimate child, and a son none the less. Pandora planned to raise Elara with her husband, and the father to have no involvement.

No one but the four adults even knew the truth about Elara's true heritage until her mother died, and her father turned up at the funeral, hiding at the back. After several tough conversations, it was decided that though traveling my floo powder, Elara would have lunch every Sunday with her father, his wife who is essentially her step mother, and her half brother. Due to her September birthday and his June birthday, they started Hogwarts the same year. No one at school knows they're related, other than Luna, and they planned to keep it that way. They would act like they had never met before their first day at school, and keep to themselves, however as the weeks went on, they realised they missed each other's company. Despite having hated each other when they first met, they'd grown fond of each other, so, one Sunday, they had both found themselves down in the kitchens, not wanting to eat in the hall. Without having to say anything, Sunday lunches resumed.

"So you really couldn't keep your nose clean for one week?" Elara asked accusingly.

"Have you even met me?" He threw back with a knowing look. "Besides, I didn't start any of it."

"Oh come off it Draco. Did you really need to call Hermione the M word?"

"You can say mudblood, you're not one so why does it matter? Besides she is a mudblood and a lot worse people than me will call her one eventually so she better get used to hearing it." Draco defended himself with.

"That's not the point and you know it."

"Can we just get past that. It happened because they didn't like that I made seeker on the Quidditch team. Aren't you going to congratulate me on that? No one else has." He says slumping in his seat.

"Yes, I am" She said looking at him with pleading eyes. "Yes Father helped them notice you, but all those hours we spent practicing in the garden this summer is what really matters. It's what will keep you on the team as you keep winning games, well against everyone but Hufflepuff because try outs are next week and you know I'm making the team."

"You're making the team so I can beat you."

They spent the rest of their time catching up on their weeks, and had finished the meal whist still chatting. Across the room, Draco had noticed the painting open. Without hesitation, Draco grabbed Elara's arm and dragged her to hide under the table to hide.

"I'll be honest, I thought Fred and George were tricking us about how to get into the kitchens" said a female voice.

"I think that's Pippa Potter" whispered Elara.

"I don't care, I just want cake. It's my birthday after all" said a second female voice.

"That's Lizzy Smythe for sure" whispered Draco.

"Hello, are you hungry? Do you need more food? What can I do to help?" asked a very eager house elf.

"Oh Hello, it's my birthday today, and I was hoping I might be able to get some cake" Said Lizzy.

"Of course miss, happy to help on a special day." Replies the house elf before running off in search of cake.

Lizzy feels pleased she is getting cake, and turns to see her friend who is standing there almost shell shocked and not moving. Pippa's eyes look like they are close to popping out of her head as she looks at the team of elves running around the kitchen.

"Oh yeah, muggle raised" Lizzy said to herself. "These are house elves. Normally they work one house each and serve that one house for life, but here, it takes a team of them to keep Hogwarts going.

Pippa still stairs ahead blankly. Lizzy tried waving her hand in front of Pippa's face to no avail. After a couple of minutes the elf arrived back with a large chocolate cake with icing sugar spelling 'happy birthday' on top of it.

"When you cut into it, there's a nice surprise" says the elf handing over the cake, beaming.

Lizzy takes it, with a smile covering half her face. She thanks the elf and walks out the kitchen with Pippa slowly backing out the room after her.

Once the painting had closed behind the girls, Draco and Elara crawled out from under the table they were hiding under.

"That was a close one." Said Draco.

"Yeah, are we ever going to tell people we're brother and sister." Asked Elara.

"No, are you crazy? We'd destroy father's reputation. It's bad enough if people found out that he cheated on his wife, but that the affair resulted in _you_ would be the end of the Malfoy name. Just because the Lovegoods are pureblood doesn't mean they are supposed to mix with the Malfoys." Said Draco.

"Yeah, no yeah your right. I don't want to risk that." Said Elara slightly disheartened.

"It'll be okay though, and I'll see you next week. You can tell me all about how you made the Quidditch team" He said before turning to leave out the painting door. Elara waited a few more minutes before making her own way out.


End file.
